Kevin De Bruyne (born 28 June 1991) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Premier League club Manchester City and the Belgium national team. He is widely regarded as one of the best players in the world and of his generation. Pundits have often described him as a “complete footballer”.
De Bruyne began his career at Genk, where he was a regular player when they won the 2010–11 Belgian Pro League. In 2012 he joined English club Chelsea, where he was used sparingly and then loaned to Werder Bremen. He signed with Wolfsburg for £18 million in 2014, where he established himself as one of the best players in the Bundesliga and was integral in the club’s 2014–15 DFB-Pokal win. In the summer of 2015 De Bruyne joined Manchester City for a club record £54 million. He has since won four Premier League titles, five League Cups and an FA Cup with the club. In 2017–18 he had a significant role in Manchester City’s record in becoming the only Premier League team to attain 100 points in a single season. In 2019–20, De Bruyne tied the record for most assists in a Premier League season and was awarded Player of the Season (which he won again in 2021–22).
De Bruyne made his full international debut in 2010, and he has since earned over 90 caps and scored 25 goals for Belgium. He was a member of the Belgian squads that reached the quarter-finals both at the 2014 FIFA World Cup and at UEFA Euro 2016. He represented Belgium at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, where Belgium won the third place play-off match against England, and was named in the FIFA World Cup Dream Team.
De Bruyne has been named in the UEFA Champions League Squad of the Season five times, the IFFHS Men’s World Team four times, the UEFA Team of the Year and the ESM Team of the Year three times each, the France Football World XI, and the Bundesliga Team of the Year. He has also won the Premier League Playmaker of the Season twice, the PFA Players’ Player of the Year twice, Manchester City’s Player of the Year four times, the UEFA Champions League Midfielder of the Season, the Bundesliga Player of the Year, the Footballer of the Year (Germany), the Belgian Sportsman of the Year and the IFFHS World’s Best Playmaker twice.
Personal life
De Bruyne’s mother is Belgian, born in Burundi and has also lived in the Ivory Coast. Drongen, his hometown, is a sub municipality of the city of Ghent, in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. Aside from his mother tongue Dutch, De Bruyne also speaks French, English, and German. Since 2014 De Bruyne has been in a relationship with Michèle Lacroix. The couple married in June 2017, and have three children together.
His autobiography, titled Keep It Simple, was published by Borgerhoff & Lamberigts in October 2014, following an incident between De Bruyne and his compatriot Thibaut Courtois, in which De Bruyne’s then-girlfriend left him for Courtois. De Bruyne wrote in his autobiography, “Although I still can not believe what Courtois has done, we continue to work together professionally.”
De Bruyne was an ambassador for the 2014 Special Olympics, which took place in Antwerp, and was involved in a controversial advertisement campaign, via his personal Instagram account. Employing the slogan (in Dutch): “Would you still be my fan if I looked like this?”, De Bruyne was depicted as resembling a person with Down syndrome.
Kevin De Bruyne Height Weight Age Body Statistics Biography
Style of play
De Bruyne is widely regarded as one of the best players in the world and he has often been described as a “complete” footballer. Considered to be a versatile and highly talented player in the media, he plays mainly as a central or an attacking midfielder but can also operate in several other positions and has been used as a winger or second striker. He has even been deployed in a deeper creative midfield position and on occasion, a box-to-box role or as a false 9. He is often described by pundits as one of the best and most complete modern day advanced playmakers due to his technique, skill, athleticism, work-rate off the ball, vision, crossing accuracy, wide range of passing, and powerful long-range shooting ability with either foot.
Although he is not blessed with significant physical strength, pace, or ability in the air, he is a quick and elegant player on the ball with good dribbling skills, while his positional sense, tactical intelligence, movement, direct style of play and ability to run at defences when in possession also enable him to take advantage of spaces in the opposition’s defence and subsequently create chances and goalscoring opportunities for himself or his teammates, making him a dangerous offensive threat on counter-attacks. In addition to his creative abilities, he is also capable of scoring goals by making late runs off the ball from behind into the penalty area and is an accurate set-piece taker. De Bruyne was ranked the fourth-best footballer in the world by The Guardian in 2017 and the twelfth-best in 2019. In 2020, his Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola described him as the best midfielder in the world.
World Cup 2018
De Bruyne was selected for Belgium’s final 23-man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. On 18 June, in the opening game against debutants Panama, De Bruyne provided an assist for Romelu Lukaku in an eventual 3–0 win. On 6 July, he scored the second goal of the match in a 2–1 quarter-final victory over Brazil and was named the man of the match. In the semi-finals, Belgium were defeated 1–0 by eventual champions France. On 14 July, Belgium defeated England 2–0 in the third-place play-off.
Euro 2020
On 17 June 2021, De Bruyne scored his first and the winning goal in Belgium’s second match of UEFA Euro 2020, a 2–1 win over Denmark. He had also previously assisted the team’s first goal. During round of 16 clash with Portugal, De Bruyne suffered an ankle injury from a tackle from behind, by Portugal’s Joao Palhinha. On 2 July Belgium manager Roberto Martinez said that De Bruyne could recover in time for the quarter-final match, later that day, despite not training all week and he was later confirmed in the starting line-up.
Career Statistics
Club
As of match played 5 November 2022
| Club | Season | League | National Cup | League Cup | Europe | Other | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | |
| Genk | 2008–09 | Belgian First Division | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | — | — | 2 | 0 | ||
| 2009–10 | Belgian Pro League | 35 | 3 | 2 | 0 | — | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 40 | 3 | |
| 2010–11 | Belgian Pro League | 32 | 5 | 0 | 0 | — | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 6 | |
| 2011–12 | Belgian Pro League | 28 | 8 | 1 | 0 | — | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 36 | 8 | |
| Total | 97 | 16 | 3 | 0 | — | 11 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 113 | 17 | ||
| Chelsea | 2012–13 | Premier League | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 |
| 2013–14 | Premier League | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | — | 9 | 0 | |
| Total | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | |
| Werder Bremen (loan) | 2012–13 | Bundesliga | 33 | 10 | 1 | 0 | — | — | — | 34 | 10 | ||
| VfL Wolfsburg | 2013–14 | Bundesliga | 16 | 3 | 2 | 0 | — | — | — | 18 | 3 | ||
| 2014–15 | Bundesliga | 34 | 10 | 6 | 1 | — | 11 | 5 | — | 51 | 16 | ||
| 2015–16 | Bundesliga | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | — | — | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | ||
| Total | 52 | 13 | 9 | 2 | — | 11 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 73 | 20 | ||
| Manchester City | 2015–16 | Premier League | 25 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 3 | — | 41 | 16 |
| 2016–17 | Premier League | 36 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 1 | — | 49 | 7 | |
| 2017–18 | Premier League | 37 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 1 | — | 52 | 12 | |
| 2018–19 | Premier League | 19 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 32 | 6 |
| 2019–20 | Premier League | 35 | 13 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 48 | 16 |
| 2020–21 | Premier League | 25 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 8 | 3 | — | 40 | 10 | |
| 2021–22 | Premier League | 30 | 15 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 19 |
| 2022–23 | Premier League | 13 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 18 | 3 |
| Total | 220 | 60 | 21 | 7 | 24 | 10 | 58 | 12 | 2 | 0 | 325 | 89 | |
| Career total | 405 | 99 | 34 | 9 | 27 | 10 | 83 | 18 | 5 | 0 | 554 | 136 |
International
As of match played 25 September 2022
| National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium | 2010 | 1 | 0 |
| 2011 | 1 | 0 | |
| 2012 | 6 | 1 | |
| 2013 | 11 | 3 | |
| 2014 | 11 | 4 | |
| 2015 | 8 | 4 | |
| 2016 | 12 | 1 | |
| 2017 | 8 | 0 | |
| 2018 | 10 | 2 | |
| 2019 | 6 | 4 | |
| 2020 | 4 | 1 | |
| 2021 | 10 | 3 | |
| 2022 | 5 | 2 | |
| Total | 93 | 25 |